LitHub Daily: August 8, 2016

TODAY: In 1818, a 22-year-old John Keats returns from a walking tour of Scotland, during which he begins to show signs of the tuberculosis that would kill him. 

• The uncertainty of literary community: Anne Korkeakivi on writing as a roving expatriate. | Literary Hub
• Ten writers who did quit their day jobs. | Literary Hub
• When a descendent of witch hunters writes a novel about Salem. | Literary Hub
• Understanding America, one book at a time: Recommendations of books that capture the spirit of their regions. | The New York Times
• “My novel explores universal themes of love, identity, sexuality, and belonging. My hope is that everyone can identify with elements of the story, regardless of who they are and where they’re from.” An interview with Nicole Dennis-Benn. | Los Angeles Review of Books
• On the commonalities between artistic recluses Harper Lee and Frank Ocean (beyond the inspiration of countless thinkpieces). | The Atlantic
• “There has been a growth in the literary depiction of a particular type of friendship, one that has in the past found itself vulnerable to dilution and deflection by the ostensibly more powerful imperatives of heterosexuality and motherhood.” On literary renderings of female friendship, from Elena Ferrante to Zadie Smith. | The Guardian
• On Chris Kraus’ “unorthodox treatment of Jews and Jewishness” and use of the k-word. | Los Angeles Review of Books
• “I feel like I’m trying to lift this kind of immovable object—that I’m doing something that is futile. And yet, I feel that I need to keep trying.” An interview with Etgar Keret. | NPR
• On the paintings of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet who “never wanted to be a poet.” | Hyperallergic
• Works by Borges and Nabokov are being showcased at an Argentinean exhibition commemorating the 1916 Easter Rising. | The Irish Times

Also on Literary Hub: Interview with a bookstore: Tubby & Coo’s Mid-City Book Shop, a New Orleans’ nerd mecca with a family history · One wish: A novel? A baby? A father’s life? · Not bad for a light weight: from Annie DeWitt’s White Nights in Split Town City

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